Thoughts on public health and communication in the Caribbean

HCC’s Salt Reduction Campaign

I recently read an article on how the many observation days set aside for HIV awareness across the U.S. (this week was Native American HIV Awareness Day) may indeed dilute any comprehensive message on ending the epidemic. The various observation days this week made me think of that article. Between March 20th and 27th there are World Water Day, World TB Day and the entire week devoted to Salt Awareness. Now, the latter I had not heard off until visiting the Healthy Caribbean Coalition Website.

The focus on this year’s World Action on Salt and Health (WASH) is on Salt and Men’s health. Why men’s health? Because of a UK study noting that “more men prematurely die of cardiovascular disease (CVD) than women. CVD accounts for 29% preventable deaths in men (compared to 21% in women). The research shows that men eat more salt than women and on average have a higher blood pressure than women, particularly at a younger age, and are less likely to have their blood pressure measured, to take action to reduce it when it is raised or to take blood pressure lowering drugs.”

And, thus, HCC’s Salt Reduction Campaign.

As an aside, I’m interested in the evaluation of such a campaign. So, if there is someone working on evaluating this campaign or other health communication/health promotion campaigns in the region, please let me know by leaving a comment below.